Iran's State-Owned Telecommunications Company Has Yet to Comply With Judicial Order to Block Telegram

Investigations by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) show that Iran's
Telecommunications Infrastructure Company (TIC), which operates under President
Hassan Rouhani's Telecommunications Ministry, has yet to comply with a
prosecutor's order
to block the Telegram messaging app.

Iranians are nevertheless still experiencing difficulties accessing the app
because mobile phone and internet service providers (ISPs), which were also told
to block the app, have complied with the order.

The TIC is the sole provider of telecommunications infrastructure to all private
and public operators in Iran and does not directly provide services to users.
Telegram's voice call service was blocked by the TIC in April 2017 and has
remained inaccessible for more than a year.

Despite being legally
able to do so, President Rouhani has refused to directly challenge the
judicial ban, opting instead to indirectly inform the Iranian people that the
ban was ordered by hardline Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

"This government has not and will not block any social media network or
messenger," said Rouhani in an Instagram
post on May 4.

Referring to a well-known speech by Khamenei, he added: "If a decision has been
made by the highest level of state to restrict or block people's communications,
the people, who are the real owners of this country, should be informed
"#WeHaveNoSecrets, #TopDownRuling."

In April 2015, Khamenei said
"we have no secrets" while discussing Iran's nuclear program. Iranians have
widely interpreted Rouhani's usage of the "WeHaveNoSecrets" hashtag as him
indirectly stating that it was Khamenei who told the prosecutor to order the
ban.

Since the launch of Iran's state-controlled National
Information Network (NIN), which gives the government newly expanded
abilities to control Iranians' access to the internet and monitor online
communications, the state's system for blocking online content has become
decentralized.

Previously, content could only be blocked by the TIC. But since the launch of
NIN, all Iranian ISPs and mobile operators have the same capability.

The order to block Telegram came after months of unsuccessful
pressure on the company by the Iranian Judiciary and state officials to move
its servers to Iran and comply with Iranian censorship policies.

Hardliners' hostility to Telegram also increased after the messaging app was
used by many of the protestors during the unrest that broke out across Iran in
December 2017 to spread word of the street gatherings.

The move also reflects a desire by hardliners to demonstrate their domestic
dominance-and Rouhani's powerlessness to stop the bans on social media that he
publicly states he opposes.

Despite experiencing serious interruptions, many Iranians have been able to
access the app with online circumvention tools such as virtual private networks
that enable users to mask their location and identity, thereby preventing state
censors from detecting them.

Reacting to the ban, prominent Iranian human rights advocate Emadeddin Baghi tweeted on
May 4, "Despite the all-out war on Telegram and the migration of state agencies
from this network, its subscribers have increased in a kind of reverse
migration. Even my own limited number of quality followers has gone up."

"Citizens want their freedom to be protected but I don't know why the domestic
messengers loyal to the state won't stop going after Telegram," he added.

Iranian user Amir Seyedin, a member of the International Federation of
Journalists, tweeted on
May 3: "When WeChat was blocked, everyone went over to Viber. When Viber was
blocked, everyone joined Telegram. But when Telegram was blocked, no one went
away. Everyone installed circumvention tools and continued to use it. Don't
forget: The same strategy will not work every time!"